Okay, go ahead and post them whenever you want after the deadline expires. The Pick 10 may do the whole thing secret, but I want everyone to be able to follow along with what the championship picture is throughout the race.

Okay, go ahead and post them whenever you want after the deadline expires. The Pick 10 may do the whole thing secret, but I want everyone to be able to follow along with what the championship picture is throughout the race.

Okay, go ahead and post them whenever you want after the deadline expires. The Pick 10 may do the whole thing secret, but I want everyone to be able to follow along with what the championship picture is throughout the race.

Ok cool I’ll do it soon, probably while watching FP3.

Are you going to wait until one of the most popular picks hits the wall or gets a grid penalty?

By the looks of it, only Bentrovato and me can win the competition now. Is that correct?Edit: and Icemanjee1!

Correct. If Vettel doesn't win, you are the individual champion. You have no picks in common with either of them, and they have nothing in common with each other except for Vettel, so if either one scores the Perfect Podium they will be champion instead of you.

I'll do a longer write-up of the team scenarios later, because while the individual championship has only a small number of possibilities, the team picture is much more open (and just about everyone is still involved in it).

Arghhh. That'll teach me for putting off adding my picks until I'd seen the fp's when you've been having bother with your internet. Been trying to get on since last night, sorry mcdo I've blown it for the team comp.

Miserable end to a miserable season.

_________________"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

Arghhh. That'll teach me for putting off adding my picks until I'd seen the fp's when you've been having bother with your internet. Been trying to get on since last night, sorry mcdo I've blown it for the team comp.

Miserable end to a miserable season.

It was a good season overall. But we've just knocked ourselves out of both competitions

Arghhh. That'll teach me for putting off adding my picks until I'd seen the fp's when you've been having bother with your internet. Been trying to get on since last night, sorry mcdo I've blown it for the team comp.

Miserable end to a miserable season.

Sorry to see that happen to you - I almost had that happen to me once with a power failure, and I always worry about it if I don't set a banker prediction.

On the plus side, unless you were going to be the one entrant who predicted Bottas, it might not make any difference in the end.

Arghhh. That'll teach me for putting off adding my picks until I'd seen the fp's when you've been having bother with your internet. Been trying to get on since last night, sorry mcdo I've blown it for the team comp.

Miserable end to a miserable season.

Sorry to see that happen to you - I almost had that happen to me once with a power failure, and I always worry about it if I don't set a banker prediction.

On the plus side, unless you were going to be the one entrant who predicted Bottas, it might not make any difference in the end.

Since we're the direct opposite of the Pick 10 competition here in the Top Three, here's your very own handy guide for how to follow along the race and know exactly what the implications of any given move or failure might be!

IF BOTTAS WINSJalopy Racing are the champions under any scenario that involves a Bottas win. If Vettel is second it benefits them, and only Bernie's Bwoah can benefit from Hamilton finishing second - and they're not close enough for those 3 points to do the trick.

IF VETTEL WINSA Vettel win is good for Bernie's Bwoah, the only team in contention to have one of its drivers banking on a Ferrari victory. If Vettel wins and Hamilton is second, those 8 points would only put Bernie's Bwoah into second place - they need the perfect podium, and that means they need Kimi to complete the podium behind Lewis.

IF HAMILTON WINSThis is where it gets complicated, since the vast majority of the field predicted this to happen:

* If Hamilton wins from BottasEvery team scores points for this scenario, but of those still in contention it benefits No Limit Excedrin Racing the most. This is the only scenario under which they can win the championship, and it depends on who's in third; if it's Vettel, No Limit will be champions - if it's not, they won't be.

* If Hamilton wins from VettelThis scenario is a victory for Jalopy Racing; nothing can stop them from claiming victory if Hamilton wins from Vettel, since both drivers are predicting that scenario. Their closest threat would be Drive Sauber, who could double perfect podium with Raikkonen in third - but even so, Jalopy would beat them to the title by 6 points.

* If Hamilton Wins from anyone elseJalopy Racing wins. No one has Hamilton winning from a driver other than Bottas or Vettel, and a low score favors the leaders.

So in summary, here is what every team needs to have happen in the race for them to win the championship:

Jalopy Racing - Jalopy Racing wins the championship if the cars finish in the order they're starting, so they'll be feeling good. No Limit Excedrin Racing - No Limit will take the championship if Hamilton jumps Bottas, and Vettel holds position. McLotus - McLotus will win the championship if Bottas wins and both Jalopy Racing and No Limit are disqualified from the championship, so they'll have to be hoping for something shocking to be revealed about both teams. Bernie's Bwoah - If Bottas suffers a DNF and Vettel jumps Hamilton at the start, with Ricciardo falling behind Raikkonen, Bernie's Bwoah will be the champions. Mind Your Manors - Mind Your Manors has no hope of the championship, since Black_Flag_11 took the path of honor and didn't tamper everyone's picks. Drive Sauber - Drive Sauber will win if everyone in front of them is disqualified. Massa Attack - Bentrovato will win if we make a rule change to retroactively allow single person teams to count their score twice. Sand Bag'n - Their best hope for the championship is a terrible math error in the final count.

Good luck, everyone, especially if you're on one of the three teams that still has an actual chance at victory!

Arghhh. That'll teach me for putting off adding my picks until I'd seen the fp's when you've been having bother with your internet. Been trying to get on since last night, sorry mcdo I've blown it for the team comp.

Miserable end to a miserable season.

It was a good season overall. But we've just knocked ourselves out of both competitions

I'm gutted, I was planning on mirroring your picks, even started writing a PM on Thursday when I'd put in my Pick 10 asking if you thought I should but then I thought nah he'll want to see the FP's because its a title decider. I'll just get him tomorrow night...

Which went well. Sorry bro

_________________"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

Arghhh. That'll teach me for putting off adding my picks until I'd seen the fp's when you've been having bother with your internet. Been trying to get on since last night, sorry mcdo I've blown it for the team comp.

Miserable end to a miserable season.

Sorry to see that happen to you - I almost had that happen to me once with a power failure, and I always worry about it if I don't set a banker prediction.

On the plus side, unless you were going to be the one entrant who predicted Bottas, it might not make any difference in the end.

Cheers yeah it sucks but I've known about the problem for 2-3 weeks so its completely my own fault for trying to be too smart. Definitely wasn't going Bottas, I'd have just mirrored mcdo if he thought it was worth it or gone Ham-Bot-Vet based on FP.

Sums up my year.

_________________"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

Arghhh. That'll teach me for putting off adding my picks until I'd seen the fp's when you've been having bother with your internet. Been trying to get on since last night, sorry mcdo I've blown it for the team comp.

Miserable end to a miserable season.

It was a good season overall. But we've just knocked ourselves out of both competitions

I'm gutted, I was planning on mirroring your picks, even started writing a PM on Thursday when I'd put in my Pick 10 asking if you thought I should but then I thought nah he'll want to see the FP's because its a title decider. I'll just get him tomorrow night...

Which went well. Sorry bro

I've got bad news... we're headed for a divorce. I'll have the lawyers over in the coming days. I'll just need you to sign some paperwork, then start moving your dynos off my property

(As explained in the Pick 10 - I'm going traveling next year and I'm already mentally preparing for not keeping up to date with all things F1. I won't even be home when the 2019 season gets underway! So I'm opting out of all online predictions/competitions going forward. I'm sure you'll find a Toro Rosso amongst the other guys )

Arghhh. That'll teach me for putting off adding my picks until I'd seen the fp's when you've been having bother with your internet. Been trying to get on since last night, sorry mcdo I've blown it for the team comp.

Miserable end to a miserable season.

It was a good season overall. But we've just knocked ourselves out of both competitions

I'm gutted, I was planning on mirroring your picks, even started writing a PM on Thursday when I'd put in my Pick 10 asking if you thought I should but then I thought nah he'll want to see the FP's because its a title decider. I'll just get him tomorrow night...

Which went well. Sorry bro

I've got bad news... we're headed for a divorce. I'll have the lawyers over in the coming days. I'll just need you to sign some paperwork, then start moving your dynos off my property

(As explained in the Pick 10 - I'm going traveling next year and I'm already mentally preparing for not keeping up to date with all things F1. I won't even be home when the 2019 season gets underway! So I'm opting out of all online predictions/competitions going forward. I'm sure you'll find a Toro Rosso amongst the other guys )

After all the promise, and all the near misses, McLotus is no more

Well its been emotional. I'd like to say I think you provided me a draggy chassis to make me look bad and yourself look good in the corners but the table doesn't seem to reflect that unfortunately.

You can keep the dyno's as a going away present, I'm not sure they work anyway. Enjoy your travels bud

_________________"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

Lotus 49.. if you need a new teammate let me know! Impossible to fill mcdo’s shoes...

Who's mcdo?. Done!.

And we've got all winter to come up with a team name as a bonus.

_________________"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

With the championship hanging in the balance, everyone - well, except for the points leader TypingChicane, who benefited from a boring race! - was surely hoping for a classic to send off the exciting 2017 season. What we got was a bit of an anticlimax instead: Bottas converted his surprise pole position to a win, despite pressure from his teammate, and Vettel finished a lonely third.

Icemanjee1 wins the round, having been the solitary entrant to predict Hamilton in second. Three others predicted Vettel in third, and they will surely be ruing Hamilton's inability to pass Bottas and give all three the Perfect Podium.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------With nobody scoring the magical combination they needed to overhaul his advantage, TypingChicane takes home the 2017 Top Three Individual Championship, four points ahead of his season-long rival mcdo. Having very narrowly missed out on taking the Pick 10 championship as well, TypingChicane does not become the first to claim the coveted double championship between the two series - that will remain a goal for another day.

The final standings of the 2017 Top Three Championship are as follows:

In the team side, inertia favored Jalopy Racing, and they duly claimed championship glory in this low-scoring finale, with No Limit Excedrin Racing claiming a solitary point to secure second. Bernie's Bwoah jumps to third on the strength of Icemanjee1's round win, displacing McLotus in what we now know is the final race for that storied marque. Farther back, Sand Bag'n has finally managed to climb out of last place, knocking Massa Attack to the back.

_________________"Clark came through at the end of the first lap so far ahead that we in the pits were convinced that the rest of the field must have been wiped out in an accident."-Eddie Dennis, describing the dominance of Jim Clark in the Lotus 49 at Spa 1967

The 2017 Top Three Championship season is over, but before we turn off the lights and move into the long winter break here are some facts and figures about the season, the championship, and the teammate pairings that fought for championship glory in 2017.

THE INDIVIDUAL CHAMPIONTypingChicane is the 2017 Individual Champion of the Top Three Championship, the fourth different champion to be crowned in the competition's five seasons. A rookie last year, TypingChicane is also the most improved contestant of 2017 - last year, our title winner was 14th, finishing almost 40 points off 2016 champion robins13 in the final count. TypingChicane is also the third Individual Champion to not have a team: CarlPotter won the inaugural season before the team system was instituted, and GPG claimed the title in 2014 without a team before switching mid-season to No Limit Excedrin Racing for his second championship.

Interestingly, with 5 wins and only a single Perfect Podium on the season, TypingChicane is not the most successful in any category except for the all important one. Runner-up mcdo, as well as TheDamus, Exediron and Bentrovato, all have more Perfect Podiums with two, and five contestants have more wins, including Icemanjee1 who claimed the most victories this year with an impressive eight. TypingChicane won the title by consistency more than anything else, scoring points in fifteen of the twenty rounds, compared to fourteen for mcdo and twelve for TheDamus. The decisive moment of the championship was arguably Mexico, where TypingChicane was the only contestant to score: those five points made the difference in the end, demonstrating that sometimes taking a risk can pay off massively when the order is slightly less predictable.

THE TEAM CHAMPIONSJalopy Racing won the 2017 Team Championship, and are the fourth different team champions in four seasons: no team has yet to achieve the coveted repeat title, with No Limit Excedrin Racing coming the closest to having achieved that fate by finishing second this year. Much like our individual title-winner, Jalopy Racing is the most improved team of the year, having risen from the ashes of Lucky 13 Racing, a team that placed eighth out of nine last year.

Jalopy Racing is the first championship team to win the title without one of its drivers in the top three of the individual standings, and all three of the teams immediately behind them in the standings had more wins. However, Jalopy Racing was the only team to have both of its drivers score a Perfect Podium, and that was characteristic of their formula for success: no other pairing on the grid came close to matching each other for results as well as the JR drivers.

And this brings us neatly on to...

TEAMMATE HEAD-TO-HEADS

Because as everyone knows, the first person you have to beat is your teammate, right? Well, maybe not if you're gunning for the team title, but it is still a badge of pride for those who missed out on championship glory. Eight teams contested the 2017 season in the Top Three Championship, and in all but one of them one of the two teammates took home the significantly larger share of the points haul:

The most balanced pairing on the grid, Herb and Jezza13 are also the only teammates to have both made the top ten in the individual standings: the two positions separating them are by far the fewest for any teammates. Interestingly, the Jalopy Racing teammates never won in the same round, indicating that a strategy of splitting picks may have been key to their victory.

While Herb was a top three competitor last year in the individual standings, the success of the team is arguably owed to the huge improvement by nominal number two driver Jezza13, who went from fifteenth last year to ninth in this winning season. In terms of point percentage, the only real F1 pairing as close is the Williams duo of Massa and Stroll. We'll leave it to the Jalopy Racing teammates to determine which of them is Stroll.

The only prior season championship team remaining on the grid, both No Limit drivers have won the team championship before, Exediron in 2015 with NLER and Jenson's Understeer in the inaugural season with the now-defunct Force Indian Takeaway. Expectations were high for this 'super team' of former champions, with many pundits predicting that the two would sweep the team championship while battling for the individual title as well.

Things didn't exactly go to plan, and while both drivers were competitive at times, Jenson's Understeer will surely be feeling disappointed in himself after having been solidly shaded by his more entrenched teammate. Exediron himself suffered his lowest finish to date of fifth in the individual standings. This pairing is similar in terms of points percentage to the Mercedes duo of Hamilton and Bottas.

One of the most surprising story lines of the 2017 season was surely the near-complete absence of last year's dominant champion robins13 from the title fight, and having more than doubled the score of his teammate in 2016 surely no one would have tapped him to lose his teammate battle either, even to an established competitor like Mayhem.

The defending champion began the season in terrible form, scoring no points in six of the first nine races, and remaining dead last in the standings until after the halfway point of the season. Once his form began to pick up around the German GP he began to outscore his teammate, but it was too late: Mayhem wins the teammate battle in every category, albeit not by a very large margin. In terms of point percentage this pairing is also similar to the Mercedes duo, albeit with the favored driver not emerging on top unlike the real-life pairing.

The newly re-branded Bernie's Bwoah team - which is a new name for the original team Multi21, with the same two drivers - was widely expected to be one of the key title protagonists this year, having already claimed second in the championship twice under their original name, and they didn't disappoint on that front. Coming into the season, lead driver cm97 had never finished outside the top seven in the individual standings, and was expected to spearhead the charge to the title.

For whatever reason, that didn't happen. Icemanjee1 - despite having never finished ahead of his more successful teammate over a season before - proceeded to dominate cm97 in nearly all categories, including taking four times as many wins with eight, the most of any competitor. Was this a breakout season for the Iceman, or merely a temporary slump for cm97? Only time will tell, but if both can operate at their highest level they will surely be a threat next year. In terms of point percentage, this pairing most closely resembles the McLaren duo of Alonso and Vandoorne.

The defending champions of 2016 had gone through several name changes in their history, starting life as the GloboGym Purple Cobras, but they kept their title-winning name and lineup for 2017, and would surely have been hoping for more of the same in the standings as well.

It didn't quite materialize: both drivers slipped back from their 2016 positions, but it was certainly lead driver Black_Flag_11 who slipped back the most, having been a title challenger the year before and finishing second in the individual standings. Despite his slump in form, Black_Flag_11 was still able to fairly comfortably see off his teammate for another season, winning the teammate battle by a point percentage similar to the Haas duo of Grosjean and Magnussen. Unlike Grosjean, Black_Flag_11 does appear to actually be able to make his brakes work from time to time.

The story of the McLotus pairing was largely one of consistency: mcdo had it, and Lotus49 did not. Both drivers took home the same number of wins with four, but Lotus49's season was peppered with too many non-scores (as well as a late DNS) to put up any real challenge against his teammate.

There was a certain sort of undesirable symmetry to the pairing, with mcdo finishing second highest in the individual standings and Lotus49 finishing second lowest of those who contested the whole season. With the announcement that McLotus is breaking apart after three seasons of near-misses, Lotus49 will surely be hoping to find some more competitive form against his new teammate for 2018. In terms of points percentage, the McLotus pair most closely resembles the real-life scoring form of the Ferrari pairing of Vettel and Raikkonen.

Formed from the ashes of Crash & Learn, Drive Sauber did not have the easiest of seasons: while the team finished in 6th place both last season and this, the loss of this year's individual champion TypingChicane from the roster must look like a mistake in retrospect, and remaining driver Remmirath scored only slightly more than half as many points as last season.

With new hire TheDamus - brought in to replace the departing TypingChicane - on strong form, this slump of form by Remmirath led to a rather one-sided match-up, highlighted in particular by the wins column. Both drivers will no doubt be keen to put this season behind themselves and look to a more competitive 2018, but especially Remmirath. This pairing is most similar to Ferrari in terms of point percentage.

The ill-fated Massa Attack team is really a story of what could have been: while the points total is the most lopsided of the grid, it wasn't always so - up until Italy where he suddenly vanished from the face of the competition, theferret had been providing fairly consistent scoring, albeit still in the shadow of his more successful teammate.

As of theferret's last race, the head-to-head was 5-4 in higher scores and 2-2 in wins. It would have been a big ask for theferret to score enough to claim the team championship - but it was potentially achievable, since Massa Attack's lead driver actually finished ahead of Jalopy Racing's in the standings. The point percentage isn't a very accurate impression of how this teammate pairing could have turned out, had they both run the full season together.

---

That's it, folks! Have a good winter break, everyone, and let's make next season an even better championship!

Well done Jezza13, we take the Team Championship in our first full season together!

Thank you Exediron for running this competition this year. It's been a lot of fun.

Cheers and back at ya Herb. A great season and it'd be a shame not to defend it next year.

I'm sending my people to talk to your people with a tasty 2 year contract in their hands and thanks to the championship winners cheque, a nice little sweetener in it for you.

Of course, as I finished close to you in the points, I will have to insist on joint # 1 status for the next 2 years but the good news is that we can afford to get the holes in the roof of the caravan fixed and buy a fish and chips dinner once a month. Unfortunately the ex wifes solicitor is a F1 fan so he kept an eye on us and has hit me up for a fair wack of the dosh. Apparently she's telling him our 8 kids are sick of living off Macaroni and Cheese every day. I tell ya Herb, ya give, give, give but some people are just never happy.

More good news is that our sponsor, Uncle Sal's Pharmaceutical and Adult Emporium (Now available online. www. jugsanddrugs.com) looks set to come on board as title sponsor for 2 years as well, which not only means we can get that engine deal sorted, and make no mistake, Toro Rosso won't be happy when they see a sexy little "H" on the nose of our cars, but we'll also get an unlimited supply of, lets say, non approved medicinal substances, which'll be great as i'll finally be able to get rid of that annoying rash in my, well, lets say, "gentlemen's area". In reflection, I probably should have told you about my condition before I swapped my seat with yours before the last race. Oh well, never mind.

Here's to a strong off season program Herb and hopefully back to back titles.

Congrats TC on taking the drivers title. Kudos to you. Excediron and Jensons Understeer. Huge thanks to you guys for running the comps this year. A senior role in the FIA awaits.

And finally, thanks for the congrats.

_________________ Pressure is a Messerschmitt up your ar$e, cricket is not. - Keith Miller, Australian cricket legend and WWII pilot.

Of course, as I finished close to you in the points, I will have to insist on joint # 1 status for the next 2 years but the good news is that we can afford to get the holes in the roof of the caravan fixed and buy a fish and chips dinner once a month. Unfortunately the ex wifes solicitor is a F1 fan so he kept an eye on us and has hit me up for a fair wack of the dosh. Apparently she's telling him our 8 kids are sick of living off Macaroni and Cheese every day. I tell ya Herb, ya give, give, give but some people are just never happy.

More good news is that our sponsor, Uncle Sal's Pharmaceutical and Adult Emporium (Now available online. www. jugsanddrugs.com) looks set to come on board as title sponsor for 2 years as well, which not only means we can get that engine deal sorted, and make no mistake, Toro Rosso won't be happy when they see a sexy little "H" on the nose of our cars, but we'll also get an unlimited supply of, lets say, non approved medicinal substances, which'll be great as i'll finally be able to get rid of that annoying rash in my, well, lets say, "gentlemen's area". In reflection, I probably should have told you about my condition before I swapped my seat with yours before the last race. Oh well, never mind.

My teammate theferret was averaging 3.25 points per race in races where he actually entered picks, which is quite good for top three. IF he showed up to every race, on average, he would have finished with the season with 65 points, giving team Massa Attack a total of 135 points and tying Jalopy racing for 1st! Oh what could have been!

If we had the reliability in the form of entering picks, I wouldn't have had to pick Verstappen to win AbuDhabi for a shot at the title and could have limped home with Vettel in third to claim the the constructors. Alas, it was not meant to be and team Massa Attack retires into obscurity on the same grand prix that their team mascot, Felipe Massa, also retires from the sport.

Always thought this was the most unpredictable competition of them all. That I won it after my sub-par rookie year proves it (to me anyway)! Still only managed one perfect podium in two seasons of playing.

Congrats to Jalopy Racing for winning the team competition!

My thanks to Exediron for running the competition and all the extra work you put in!

And, when the official result for the Cup comes in, my thanks to Jenson's Understeer. I hope winning this double will be difficult to match for a long time.

It's been a long season and I don't know about you guys, but right now I'm kind of done with everything F1. But, in all likelihood the batteries will be fully recharged in March, to have another stab at the various competitions.

Have a good winter (or summer if you are in that upside down part of the world)!